I'm in my final week of the Rites of Passage workbook from Art of Strength. I did the entire progression with a 32kg bell for my press ladders, weighted pull-ups with a 24 kg bell, and all my snatches and swings with the 24 kg bell (since this is what the SSST is done with).
What would be a good program to follow up the ROP?
Should I just order a 40kg bell and start over with the Program Minimum, or should I go back to a more traditional program and give the KBs a break?
giving them a break for a while sounds like a good idea..... as hard as that can be.....
after a winter of mostly KB work.... i'm starting to mix it in with barbell work for strength days and crossfit style workouts, mma and mountain biking for "cardio"....
its just not easy to put down the KBs entirely.... and what better excuse to buy new ones....
I've already come to terms with the fact that I'll be buying a bulldog in the next couple weeks, but I think I agree with you on the break from KBs.
Someone over on dragondoor had an interesting idea that involved continuing the ROP-esque focus on two exercises, but changing them from the snatch and the C&P to (I think) the Bent press and swing (I think he also was talking about the weighted pistol and the get-up as another alternative).
Congratulation on finishing that program, it's a tough one. I worked through it with the 1.5 pood and 1 pood, but then took a break and am only now getting back to it (got lazy, lol).
Good luck with whatever you decide.
I recommend taking a week or so off and let the body recover.
Next step would be to create a plan for the next 6-12 months.
First of all - what is your goal?
I would recommend:
1. Stick to classic kb exercises: double clean and press, jerks and snatches.
2. plenty of pullups
3. obstacle course training
4. kettlebell juggling( I'm putting a kb juggling program together, should be available next week)
5. I like crossfit elements
6. deadlifts, barbell and kb squats are always useful as well.
cheers,
Denis Kanygin
www.workoutiq.com
www.workoutiq.com/blog
Denis, all of the things you mentioned are favorites of mine. I passionately love pull-ups. As I mentioned, I did all of my pull-ups in ROP weighted with a 24 kg kettlebell. The pull-ups were DEFINITELY my limiting factor throughout the entire program. 5 ladders of 5 with that much weight (especially since I weigh 205, with gorilla arms) was a bit of a bear. With the weather getting nicer, I would love to incorporate some more juggling and obstacle course style training. I just need to find an obstacle course. I have also been considering getting back to squatting a lot more lately, as I feel that my legs have been neglected from a pure "limit strength" standpoint throughout the ROP, while my arms were pushed much harder in that arena.
What Seul said. I'm not sure about the ROP aspect, but you could go back to the program minimum and do swing-style snatches/windmills instead of swings/TGU.
ttt